West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-07-01
FRANCES NEW RIFLE.
NEW ARMS AND PRoJEcTlLEs BASED
ON ADVANCED SCIENCE.

NEW ARMS AND PRoJEcTILEs BASED
ON ADVANCED SCIENCE.
The Fate of Great Battles Generally De-
cided by the Efficiency of the In.
fantry-The Franco-Gernan Wharf.-The
"Chalons Rife"
The French army has been devoting its
energy TO devising new arms and pro-
jectiles based upon the most advanced
science The melinite shell has been
adopted for their artillery, and it is
claimed that the explosive; force of nell
mite is 100 times greater than gunpowder
and tenfold as great as dynamite; that
neither masonry nor ironclad forts can
resist its force. The nov progressive
powder, invented by Col Brugere, is
vastly more powerful than ordinary gun
powder; its popularity is that it burns
without smoke, aud almost without noise,
and developing its energy gradually while
the projectile is moving through the bar
rel of the gun, the recoil is reduced to a
minimum, and it may be better described
as ''pushn rather than shock.
The fate of all great battles has almost
invariably depended upon the efficiency of
the infantry The Macedonian phalanx
of Alexander, the tenth legion of Caesar,
the English infantry of the Black Prince,
the Spanish infantry of Charles V, the
grenadier guards of Frederick the Great,
the imperial guard of Napoleon, the Brit
ish infantry of Give and Wellington, the
s'Stonewall brigade of Jackson, the Prus-
sian infantry of Germany-these have sue
cessively been the great factors Of victory.
Therefore, the development OF infantry
tactics and arms has always been the OBJ
ject of great generals. The substitution
of the iron for the wooden raTrod by
Frederick the Great made the Prussian in
fantry able TO fire more rapidly than their
opponents, and win the victories which in
troduced Prussia as n military power.
Napoleon, changing the principal cf inGan-
try tactics from the volley fire 10 si.irmish
fire, revolutionized warfare, and laid
down the principle that the fire
and not the mass of infantry was its
best work Wellington, carrying out this
idea, trusted to the ''thin red linc'-in-
fantry in line of battle and not in column;
v
smooth bore mdsket of very short range.
Though the rifle was furnished to the
flank companies of regiments and to spe-
cial corps fifty years ago it was not until
our own civil war that whole armies were
armed with ritled muskets, the use Of
which made the fate of heavy columns of
attack against steady troops q foregone
conclusion; witness our attack on Marye's
heights at Fredericksburg and Pickett's
charge at Gettysburg. The development
of infantry fire has in fact relegated the
bayonet to the limbo of medieval pike
and Roman swords, and has converted
cavalry into the eyes and ears Of the
army rather than its mailed arm in the
decisive moment of battle.
A cavalry charge is ss,-agnificent, but
it is not war;" as the French Gen. Bos-
quet said of the charge of Balaklaya.
The cavalry saber has been driven from
the battlefield by the revolver and rifle;
in the Franco-German war, with $4,000
German cavalry and nearly as many
French cavalry, the hospital returns show
that there were only 212 wounds by
sabers and butts of muskets, all told At
Sedan q squadron of the hussars of the
French imperial guard charged the
German skirmish line at 400 yards distant;
none of their bodies were found nearer
than 100 yards; three-fourths of the
squadron fell in galloping 300 yards.
Such was the terrible work of the breach
loading needle gun.
Once only was the column of attack
used in the Franco-German war. In one
of the battles before Metz, Gen. Stein
metz formed the famous Brandenburg
brigade in column to pierce the French
lines. In spite of the bravery and dis
cipline of that picked corps, they were
ANONYMOUSLY routed, and Gen. Steinmetz
reprimanded for thus throwing away the
lives of splendid troops.
If such were the conditions Of battle in
1870, what must they be to-day, when the
rapidity of infantry fire has been increased
manifold by the use of magazine breach
leaders and the effective range of mill
tary rifles doubled by the use of 'progres-
sive" powder and improved projectiles?
The French army is now armed with a
magazine rifle which possesses almost all
the above qualifications-the "Chalons
rifle" invented by Col. Lebel, superin-
tendent of the infantry school ut Chalons.
The range of the Chalons rife is unprece-
dented. At 1000 yards its effects arc
frightful; the ball leaves the rifle with n
velocity of 1900 feet second, and re-
wolves 5000 times second; its point
blank range is 800 yards. The caliber has
been reduced to 32-100ths of an inch,
and the lead projectile covered with a
thin coating of steel and brass, so that it
may take the rifle grooves without leading
them in the quickness of revolution of the
projectile in the barrel.
The Importance of infantry armed with
guns having point blank range of 500
yards can hardly be overestimated; the
use of smokeless powder removes one of
the greatest difficulties to quick firing
rifles; the use of magazine guns, like the
Chalons rifle, makes it practically fmpos-
sible for an enemy to cross the death
swept zone of 500 yards in front of them.